The third day of competition at the IFCA Foiling European Championship, held as part of the California Windsurf Cup, saw a turnaround in the title race. Amado Vrieswijk took the lead in the overall standings with 3.4 points. Despite winning one race, Fabian Wolf slipped to second place and now trails the new leader by 5.7 points. With wind speeds of between 10 and 16 knots, the men completed four further heats at Ordinger Strand. The women competed in eight races – the maximum possible programme for the day. After three days of competition, the results lists show five heats for the men and eleven races for the women. The battle for the European title remains wide open ahead of the final weekend.
The second heat took an extraordinary turn. Following numerous disqualifications, only three riders made it into the results. Victory went to the Dutchman Bjarne van der Weg, ahead of Keno Recke and Sem Stroosma. In the third heat, Fabian Wolf put in a remarkable performance. The rider from Kiel won ahead of Amado Vrieswijk, Bob van den Burgt, John Soukos and Noah Vinther. With this victory, Wolf temporarily took the lead.
Vrieswijk strikes back
But Vrieswijk responded impressively. In the fourth elimination round, the athlete from Bonaire came out on top ahead of France’s Alexis Mathis and John Soukos. Fabian Wolf finished fourth ahead of Matthijs Pos. By now, at the very latest, a thrilling three-way battle was taking shape at the top between Vrieswijk, Wolf and Soukos. Vrieswijk was unstoppable in the fifth heat too. He claimed his second victory of the day in a row, relegating Noah Vinther, Fabian Wolf, Bob van den Burgt and Sem Strosma to the remaining places.
After five races, each rider’s two worst results are discarded from the overall standings. This rule played perfectly into Amado Vrieswijk’s hands. His slip-ups in the first two races are excluded from the standings, whilst his two victories at the end of the day count in full. The winner of the opening race, John Soukos, slipped back to third place with 7.7 points. Bob van den Burgt and Noah Vinther round off the top five, both on 12.0 points.
Eržen on course for the European Championship title
In the women’s event, Slovenia’s Lina Eržen and the Norwegian sisters Tuva and Helle Oppedal were locked in thrilling battles on the North Sea. But no matter how much pressure her rivals put her under, Eržen almost always came out on top in the end. With ten wins from eleven races, the Slovenian is dominating the European Championships. After discarding her worst results, she leads the standings with a perfect score of 5.6 points. Tuva Oppedal follows in second place with 16.0 points. Her sister Helle Oppedal is in third place with 21.7 points. This means that, ahead of the final races, Eržen has an excellent chance of being crowned European Foiling Champion on Sunday.
The IFCA Foiling European Championship is taking place at the California Windsurf Cup in St Peter-Ording until Sunday 19 July. The wind forecasts promise plenty of action for the final weekend too; races in the second discipline, Fin Slalom, are also expected to take place on Saturday.
All the latest news, live scores and results can be found at online-scoring.com
